News

The fighting continued in Iraq today near a main oil refinery, with government forces trying to stop a week-long attack from members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and others. The Iraqi foreign minister has asked the United States for air strikes against the Sunni militants' positions but President Obama, in a meeting with leaders of Congress today, said he wanted for now to focus on training Iraq's security forces and providing equipment. Thousand of displaced civilians have been looking for shelter since the the attacks began. --Lloyd Young (25 photos total)

An image downloaded on June 11 from the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin shows militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) waving the trademark Islamists flag after they allegedly seized an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin. Jihadists are pushing toward Baghdad on June 12 after capturing a town just hours to the north, as the US mulled air strikes in a bid to bolster Iraq's collapsing security forces. (AFP/Getty Images)